Latinos in Social Media

I was stumbling around trying to find an example of an ICT4D social media project in the Dominican Republic that was successful. What I came across was a project that was started using its social media to find volunteers and other resources through its online community. The project, LATISM in Montecristo, is one that involves the start of a summer camp that will provide educational resources and a cyber-lab which will provide the technological resources like computers and software for the village. The small village of Montecristo is located along the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, lacking any resources for access to the Internet and information that is readily available to the rest of the world. The project also involves a source for ending the gender-gap that is seen in computer access, with Mamá por Mamá (mother to mother), which will provide mothers in the local area with computer and e-commerce skills.

This project is a pilot program that is being set up by LATISM, which is the largest organization of Latino and Latina professionals engaged in social media. This project could be seen as a difficult first step, conquering a massive task of getting a sustainable development project in a remote area of the Dominican Republic. This will prove to whether a non-profit based on social media has the ability to take roots in a marginalized area of the Dominican Republic.

4 responses to “Latinos in Social Media”

Very interesting article, if you are interested by this I would recommend you check the way in which certain organization in Latin America use social media to spread their mission. An example that jumps to mind is Un Techo por Mi Pais which builds houses throughout Latin America. Through social media campaigns they have become extremely relevant and gather a lot of volunteers, especially high school and university students.

After reading about many ICT4D failures, I can’t help but wonder is this project considered a few things that may seem obvious to us now:
– Is there going to be the infrastructure (electricity, telephone lines, internet, etc) to support this project in a rural area which currently lacks “any resources for access to the Internet and information”?
– Is there currently any experience/ capacity or digital literacy among the end users/beneficiaries? and if not, will there be training programs (for the summer camp portion)?
– did this summer camp idea come from within (Grassroots) or was it external?

Just curious if questions like these were addressed, and if they were not, there might be reason to worry that there are some major oversights here.

As the comments above indicated, I’m curious to see if the results of this program. Considering this program takes place in the remote regions of the DR, I’m curious of the steps they took to establish adequate infrastructure to support their activities. I’m also curious at the goals of the project overall- will they produce benefit for the people themselves or is this merely just another attempt to bring ICTs to the marginalized communities without thinking it through.